I eat mine and take a few bowls to share at work. I have a food dehydrator and dry figs, store the dried figs in the fridge and eat them in the winter. Drying concentrates the sugars and makes them chewy. For me figs are too special to dilute in recipes, but that's just me. My crops are never to huge at one moment - I keep the trees small and have multiple varieties to spread out the crop.

Quince trees are what I am familiar with. They are fairly low height trees (not over about 15 foot tall) and can even send off a runner that will sprout nearby, which look a bit like a bush. The fruiting will start to occur after about 3-4 years. ONce you start to see a few big white flowers in mid to late spring, they will set a few fruits. The fruits are quite hard and a bit fuzzy. This helps to keep insects from damaging the fruits. The syrupy texture was from either adding some sugar and/or honey, or the natural high pectin that these fruits contain. You can even make jelly from quince without having to use any added pectin. My dad had planted the yellow skinned variety, which are light green, then turn yellow whe ripe. We used to get a few brown scab spots on them, but that was because my dad never sprayed them with anything, ever. Because they were planted very close to a shed, I had to dig them up and remove them some years ago. I do miss them, and will plant another quince tree a distance away from where it used to grow. No pruning, or other culturing is needed either. Quince is one of those fruits that you just can't eat off the tree (very tart, dry, and puckery), and insects or animals will avoid them too. The quince tree would give you some decent fruits after about 5 years. If you find a source that sells them in sizes based on years, then pick one that has more years (2-3) of growth before its planted in your soil. A quince is also self pollinating, so there is no need for more than one tree. I do have some apples nearby, but that will only help everything to fruit better.

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try. The only advantage to the hidden blooms is that they seem to last forever! jwww

Once again I have a surplus of quince fruit. Very large "champion" variety excellent for making paste, jelly etc. I'm at Ascot Park. If you want some, please e-mail me direct. Rosewater.